Food Fight
by Pastrinator64
Summary: Best friends Jonah and Jon enter a food fight competition at their local grocery store, Pick 'n Save, to get some money in their pockets in order to go to Comic-Con 2014. Little do they know, they are about to enter a death zone as victims of a nasty plot by the store manager, who is definitely up to no good. Experience a mix of humor and drama in this unique Hunger Games fanfic!
1. Ch 1: The Announcement

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with a brand-new edition to the Hunger Games fanfic collection! Considering the fact that I have not read the Hunger Games series enough times to create a really high-quality traumatizing tearjerker of a story, I've decided to use my extensive imagination to shape the idea of Hunger Games into something a little more realistic: a food fight.**

**I got the idea for this story while I was stuck shopping at a local grocery with my mom, thinking about how epic it would be if the store held a food fight. Just picture it! A food fight in a grocery store! Unlimited ammo! This idea grew into a fresh fanfic starring two best friends, twenty-two other unforgettable characters, as well as a sadistic store manager out to kill everybody.**

**So grab your popcorn, soda and pickled garlic, because you're above to delve into the humor and drama that comes from THIS Hunger Games fanfic: ****_Food Fight!_**

**Let the story commence!**

* * *

_Chapter 1: The Announcement_

"So, can anyone tell me what Benjamin Franklin quoted before his first meeting for the Constitutional Convention? Jonah?"

Jonah Mountman was sitting in his 2nd hour social studies class, snoozing through yet another boring lesson. Jonah was on the shorter end of most fourteen-year-olds, barely above 4'11," though he was lucky to have a stronger build. Since he lived in Eagle River, Wisconsin, his skin was pale—lighter than he wanted it to be, but it was something he couldn't help. On his face were a pair of large black glasses as well as a set of braces on his teeth. The guy sitting next to him elbowed Jonah in the side, and he snapped his head up, flinging back his shaggy blond hair.

"Eh what?"

All his classmates started snickering. He looked at their teacher Mrs. Berrdd and said,

"What was the question again?"

His classmates snickered again. Mrs. Berrdd bore her pale blue eyes into him and her wrinkles increased by about 500%. Her teeth bared in a near-snarl. Gross, she had some prune rind stuck in between the two front teeth of her dentures.

"I said, can you tell me what Benjamin Franklin quoted before his first meeting for the Constitutional Convention?" she murmured sternly.

Jack looked around him and at his classmates, grinned, then said,

"I'm pretty sure he said, 'Where's the drive-thru at, Jefferson?'."

All his classmates started laughing louder, but Mrs. Berrdd didn't even crack a smile. Instead, she cracked the whip she kept behind her desk, snapping everyone to attention. Jonah was pretty sure it wasn't even legal to have one of those, but he never said anything.

"I don't want to have to resort to...violence, will I?" murmured Mrs. Berrdd.

Every student who ever had Mrs. Berrdd for class had something in common. They both agreed on two things: 1. That Mrs. Berrdd was definitely over 120 years old, and 2. That she used old-age methods that were definitely not even close to being legal nowadays. But no one ever contacted the police or anyone at all because they were all way too afraid she'd murder them in their sleep. So instead, everyone just sucked up and tried to manage being in her class for an hour and sixteen minutes.

Jack looked at Mrs. Berrdd for a moment, both her anger and wrinkles increasing by the second. He knew the real answer, but given the fact that he'd just been deprived of one frickin-awesome dream, he didn't feel like cooperating just then. Still, he also didn't like the idea of having his eyeballs snapped out of his head by the end of one of Berrdd's weapons.

"That's a trick question; there was nothing that he quoted directly before the first meeting of the Constitutional Convention."

Mrs. Berrdd's eyes narrowed at Jack for a few moments, her beady gray eyes drilling into his skull. A few moments later, she gave an indignant sniff, her nostrils flaring, and turned reluctantly back towards the board, writing down the next question for their history journals.

* * *

"Finally! The day is DONE! The weekend is HERE!" declared Jonah, putting on his ridiculously heavy backpack and walking down the hall with his best friend Jon Wrayll.

Jon was a bigger guy, just above 5'10." He had a very strong body, though he never had a reason to use his impressive strength. Like Jonah, he had glasses, though his hair was a darker shade of brown and on the short side. The two of them pushed past the main doors of their school, slouching slightly with the weight of their backpacks as they both headed towards their homes, which were both on the same route.

"Dude, I was on Facebook yesterday and I totally got hit with a spoiler from that Super Smash Bros Universe website. You know about the new character already, right?" asked Jonah to prevent spoiling it for somebody else.

"I think so." he muttered, thinking for a moment.

"Well, even if you don't know exactly which one I'll just tell you. I saw a post on Facebook that had a picture of GRENINJA on it and it said, "Greninja makes a splash!" I was gonna watch the new presentation for Smash Bros on my 3DS, but I already knew. Thankfully, I didn't notice the Charizard one attached to it, so at least I found that out on my own."

"I went on the website and thought I saw that Saria was a new character."

"I thought so too, but it was just a trophy. Of course, I didn't realize that for about five minutes."

As they walked past the ring of city buildings separating the suburbs and the metropolis area, Jonah noticed a gigantic billboard about twenty feet from the road.

"Hey, Jon, look at that!" he said, pointing at it in awe.

Jon turned his head to look at it and read aloud,

"'Eat Barnacle Chips, they're delicious!'"

Jonah sighed and lifted a hand, turning Jon's head a little farther to the right.

"Oh! That one."

The billboard he'd just directed Jon's attention to showed two clipart-looking kids throwing watermelons at each other with oversized smiles on their faces. The Pick 'n Save logo was right above their heads. Beneath the photo was a short description in neon red. Jon read aloud again this time.

"'Attention all teenage boys and girls ages 13-16! A food-fight competition at your local Pick 'n Save will be held tomorrow, April 9, 2014, at 3:00 AM! Test your strength, speed, agility and smarts in THIS epic food fight for a chance to win 1,000 dollars! All Wisconsin citizens of this age range are eligible to sign up today!'"

Both of them stared at the billboard for a moment, taking in the message.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" inquired Jon, grinning as he looked down at Jonah.

"I'm thinking that I wanna to Dunkin' Donuts."

Jon laughed and replied,

"You always wanna go there! No, I'm thinking we enter and try for that prize money. How else are we gonna get to Comic Con this year?"

Jonah then remembered the previous idea that he and Jon had come up with. They'd wanted to go to Comic Con together, but there was only one problem: no cash. Both of them were pretty much broke. They'd gone around scouting for ways to earn money, but nothing ever came up. This had to be the answer to their prayers!

"I don't even know how this whole competition works." stated Jonah, shaking his head slightly. "Besides, I don't like getting food on me."

Jon could care less about the dirtiness of it all, so he was in for it for sure. He put his arm around Jonah and moved him forward, keeping him walking until they reached the billboard. Underneath it was a signup sheet with only one name on it.

"Look, there's only one name!" Jonah pointed out, jabbing a thumb at the paper. "See?"

"Well, it did say "all Wisconsin citizens of this age range," so there must be signup sheets all over Wisconsin.

"This person must be from our school, then." noted Jonah, looking to see who it was.

**Nathan Fleming**

Jonah laughed out loud at the sight of his classmate's name.

"Nathan'll nap through the entire fight if he enters." he said, then looked back up at Jon. "I'm still not signing up, though. You can if you want."

Jon smirked and plucked the permanent marker from its holder next to the sheet, writing his name down. Then, with just one glance at Jonah, he quickly scribbled Jonah's name down—in PERMANENT marker. Jonah shoved Jon away and shouted,

"What the heck, man?! I told you already that I hate getting food on my clothes!"

Jon snickered at Jonah's frustration and remarked,

"You'll be fine, dude! Seriously, it's not like it's a fight to the death or anything."

Nearby, hiding in the dark shadow cast by the massive billboard, a mysterious figure stood there, watching the two of them bicker. He chuckled quietly to himself, murmuring,

"Good, good. That's two more victims for my ingenious plot. Only three more and I'll have the perfect candidates. Oh, my plan is falling into place so wonderfully! No one can stop me, not now! Ahahahahahaa!"

The bellowing cry of thunder filled the sky and the entire billboard was reduced to ash by a lightning bolt, revealing the man entirely. Jonah and Jon stared at him. He stared back.

"What's that guy doing?" muttered Jonah, raising an eyebrow.

"Was he watching us the whole time? What a weirdo." Jon added, looking skeptical.

They both continued walking down the street so Jonah could argue with his companion in peace. The mysterious figure, who's exposed features made him much less mysterious, shuffled away in annoyance with the weather. Perhaps he should have saved his maniacal storm-summoning laugh for later.

* * *

Back at home, Jonah walked in the front door extremely nervous to tell his parents about the event he'd unintentionally signed up for. They were very, very, VERY protective and had to know exactly what he was doing 24/7, so this made it unreasonably hard for him to tell them the truth. His mom was cutting onions in the kitchen when he walked in, so her eyes were red and moist. He hoped this distraction would keep her from thinking much about tomorrow's huge food fight bonanza.

"Hey, mom." he started, getting her attention.

"Hi, Jonah!" she said cheerfully. "How was school?"

"Okay, I guess. Mrs. Berrdd almost used her whip on me, but other than that—"

She stopped cutting vegetables at the word "whip." Jonah knew immediately that he'd said the wrong thing.

"Not whip, I mean she was going to whip me with her, um, her hair. She REALLY loves to sing "I whip my hair back and forth" in class, so...yeah."

His mom just eyed him thoughtfully, blinking rapidly from the stinging of the onions. She gave an odd sort of smile and turned back to her work.

"Alright then." she said simply.

Jonah let out a breath and speed-walked out of the kitchen towards his room. He didn't even think then about telling his dad, who'd flip if he knew; his dad was way stricter. While in his room, he formulated a plan that he usually tried to avoid. Tomorrow, since the competition was super early, he'd wake up just before 3:00 AM, get ready and walk to Pick 'n Save. He'd compete, lose early on purpose, and then sneak home for a shower. Since his dad would be up around 5:00, he'd make sure to get back fifteen minutes before then just to be sure and come out of the shower making up some lie about setting the alarm too early and not being tired.

He sighed and flopped on his bed, silently cursing Jon for signing him up for that stupid competition. There was no reason he wanted to go into a grocery store for a food fight; it'd be chaotic as heck and he'd probably end up slipping in olive oil or something. But then he remembered the thousand dollar prize. He sure could use that money if he really wanted to go to Comic Con. If he won he'd probably split the money with Jon and they'd go together like they wanted.

It would be nice to have a thousand dollars, or five hundred, in his pocket. Still, he was reluctant to have food all over him...

"I can't tell if I want to do this thing or not." he muttered to himself, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom.

"What?"

Jonah gave a little jolt at the sudden sound of his older brother's voice. He looked to his left to see his brother lying in bed with his 3DS, playing Fire Emblem: Awakening.

"Nothing, Bartholomew."

* * *

**Bartholo-freaking-mew!**

**I hope you like the first chapter enough to come back for more, because you can count on the fact that I'll be seeing you all later with Chapter 2!**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


	2. Ch 2: Two Psychos

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the second chapter of ****_Food Fight._**

**I'd like to thank the 22 people who were gracious enough to view my story! I heard that that's considered a jackpot in THIS section considering how many stories there are for this series. I'm just going to hope that I'm a lucky enough guy.**

**Besides that, I have no other shout-outs or announcements to give. Please enjoy the next chapter as we watch Jonah and Jon entering the tournament together, Jonah slightly skeptical and Jon ecstatic for whatever would be thrown their way—literally.**

**Let the story commence!**

* * *

_Chapter 2: Two Psychos_

Jonah was quite restless that night, wary of what the morning held. He disliked going into things not knowing what he was getting mixed up in, so this was a definite red-alert in his system. Still, after getting possibly six hours of sleep tops, he awoke to the sound of the music alarm in his iPod. Maybe he was a heavy sleeper, but dubstep still did the trick.

After groggily getting dressed in the least-desirable clothes he could find, he grabbed a pickle from the fridge in the kitchen and headed out the door as quietly as possible. As he was opening the door, though, his dog Zelda started barking and snarling like there was a murderer in the house. Jonah backed out of the door quickly and shut it hastily, stumbling in the dark garage until he reached the side door and exited out into the early morning twilight.

He ran from there, making sure that he stayed away from any streetlights in case his dad looked out the window after being rudely awoken by the dog. After a minute, he stopped running and panted, catching his breath. He could do any exercise unless it was cardio. Push-ups, sit-ups, whatever, but running? Yeah, not so good at that.

It took him twenty minutes to reach Pick 'n Save. He squinted into the neon sign hanging in front of the building. The letters P and E were blacked, making it look like a German word.

"Ick un shav. That definitely sounds like German."

He strolled on forward towards its automatic doors. As they pulled away to allow him in, he took a deep breath and let it back out.

"Alright, Jonah. You're just gonna enter this thing, make it look like you got hit with some food, then leave."

"Hey! That's not fun at all, you cheater."

Jonah yelped an unmanly little yelp and jerked his head to the right to see Jon standing there, right out of the blue.

"How did you get there?! I was alone five seconds ago!"

Jon merely shrugged and muttered,

"I don't know, I just walked up, okay? Sheesh."

For some reason, this put Jonah in a bad mood, partially because Jon took offense to his non-offensive comment, but also because he was having a hard time figuring out how in the world Jon got next to him so fast. He passed through the next set of doors and entered the store's main, giant, open room with his friend and took a look around at the other contestants. Besides the fact that many of them were light-skinned because of living in Wisconsin, there was still a variety of teenagers. A line of that black crowd-divider belt was stretched from one wall of the shopping cart supply area to the other wall, separating them from the actual grocery area itself.

Jonah then found himself looking for Nathan just for the fun of it. Pushing past a couple of larger guys he spotted that unforgettable dork sleeping inside of a shopping cart in the fetal position, his snores practically rattling the metal. Jonah grinned and grabbed Jon, pulling him over and directing his attention to Nathan.

"Wow. He's always like that, isn't he?" he remarked, a smile spreading on his face.

"Yep."

The two of them spent another two or so minutes just making fun of Nathan's hibernation, but then the clock just past the crowd divider, which was right on the wall behind the front counter of the open flower shop, struck 3:00 AM on the dot. Faintly, Jonah could hear the chime of church bells somewhere in the distance. Not even five seconds later, some pimply college kid in a Pick 'n Save uniform walked into view from the left, attracting their attention. Looking less than thrilled, he stopped at the center of the other end of the black divider belt and got an eyeful of them all.

"Hello, my name is Terry. If you would, please follow me to the start area and the store manager will explain the rules for the games."

He unclipped the fastener on the divider and pulled out the black belt, removing it from its two posts and letting everyone enter the main store. A line of yellow tape on the floor led them forward through the store, having them pass the produce and vegetable sections, then the bakery and the giant deli display and finally into the large storage room just before the meats section.

Inside of the cold, dim, gray room there were boxes and boxes of dairy and meat products, all of which were being kept preserved and refrigerated. A few machines, none of which Jonah recognized, were placed within the room, though the center itself was quite spacious. There were twenty-four opened cardboard boxes placed in a massive circle on the floor, all standing around another cardboard box that was almost fifteen times as big as the ones on the floor.

Terry slouched as he stood in front of them all, waiting impatiently for them to shut up. In fact, he waited five extra minutes before everyone got the clue. When they did quiet down, Jon leaned over to Jonah and whispered,

"It took them long enough."

"No kidding."

Terry gave an over-exaggerated sigh and glared, looking ready to kill them all.

"Now that you're all gathered here, let me introduce to you our wonderful store manager: Thomas Guilton, everybody."

That was their signal to clap as a well-fed man wearing somewhat formal attire, had just a patch of graying hair and an unusually greasy black mustache burst out into the room through a wall of empty boxes, presenting himself in a spontaneous manner. He also looked to be the age of around fifty or so, so a few seconds later he was trying to sneak cracking his back into comfort again. Jon nudged Jonah and muttered quickly,

"That's the guy who was watching us!"

"Yeah, I know." replied Jonah, eyeing him suspiciously.

Although the man in front of them looked happy to be there, the supposedly genuine smile on his face didn't travel to his eyes. His eyes remained a cold cobalt blue.

"Hello! My name is Thomas Guilton and I shall be your, er, host! I know that you are all excited to get started with the games, but first, if you would, each of you please step into one of the boxes around the large center box."

The pushed and shoved as they all tried to get into one of the boxes. Jonah lifted a foot and then the other, stepping into one open cardboard box next to Jon. The cardboard only reached a few inches above his ankles, but he felt ridiculous just standing there. As soon as the last person found a box to stand in, Terry leaned over a tall box sitting next to him and whipped out a dangerous-looking potato gun, waving it at them.

"Now don't anybody move or I'll shoot. These potatoes are frozen solid, so unless you want to have your brains knocked out I suggest you keep still."

Everyone in the group immediately started shouting in fear, confusion or anger, or a mixture of all three—except for Nathan, whose head was nodding slowly with drowsiness. Terry didn't wait this time and lifted the potato gun, shooting a potato with a startlingly loud bang up at the ceiling. They watched in sickening shock as the potato made a dent and became embedded. Terry looked at them all and said,

"You will now be briefed by Mr. Guilton on the rules for the games."

Jonah was panicking at this point; he'd already realized that this food fight was going to turn out as something far worse, something far more hazardous than just an innocent food fight. Plus, they kept referring to the competition as "the games," so that couldn't be a good sign. Mr. Guilton still had that plastered-on smile spread across his face as he stepped forward to gain everyone's attention, or at least most of it considering they were still occasionally eyeing Terry fearfully.

"I understand that this is all very rushed and frightening, but it is all part of a simple idea of mine to make this fun food fight a more interesting event. Instead, I have decided that, for my entertainment, you will all be fighting in a battle to the death within the store! The last man standing shall be the only one getting out of this store alive!"

Frantic screams and shouts erupted in the room, causing Terry to blast the potato gun more than five times to get them to quiet down.

"Shut your faces and listen, alright?" he exclaimed, threatening them all by pointing the gun at each of them.

There were a couple people crying now, some others just frozen in fear, others who were on the verge of having a meltdown, and then there was Nathan; he had fallen asleep while standing in place, so he probably didn't know what had happened at all, yet. Guilton's smile grew even more for some reason as he took a breath and began explaining everything.

"I will now take some time to inform you of the rules that I will be asserting for this competition, which I am calling the Grocery Games!"

"That's like the lamest name I've ever heard." said some kid near the back, a rebellious little smirk on his face.

Terry, already greatly heated at everyone with their incessant talking, aimed the potato gun right at the person who'd piped up and shot, hitting him square in the eyes with a frozen potato. As he fell to the ground, people started screaming again and one girl was even brave enough to jump out of her box and run to the boy's side; the potato had become entrenched into the boy's skull and there was already blood on the floor.

"He's dead!" she shrieked, jerking her head fearfully at Terry.

Guilton's smile immediately disappeared and he whirled around at Terry, lifting a fist at him and yelling,

"You killed off one of our contestants before we even began! Terry, report to my office immediately and I will meet you there later. ...Oh, and leave the gun, if you would."

Terry's head fell back as he groaned at the top of his lungs. He set the potato gun in Guilton's hands and shoved his hands in his pockets as he stomped away from them all and out the door of the packaging room. Jonah breathed heavily with relief now that the psycho was gone. Or at least, ONE of the psychos. Still, much leftover panic was still bubbling up inside of him. He wasn't the most adventurous, daredevil-ish person in the world, so this trap he was surprised to be stuck in was possibly the absolute most horrifying thing that could happen to him.

But the small adrenaline in his body kept him focused on Guilton. He made sure not to break eye contact or move around restlessly in his box. This would mean Guilton targeting him, possibly. Guilton glanced at everyone individually, making each of them jump a little as his eyes landed. When he was finished, he set the potato gun over his shoulder and spoke again.

"Now that I have your undivided attention, I am going to state all of the rules:

"1. You will not be allowed to refer to me as anything but Mr. Guilton.

"2. You will not be allowed to speak to me unless I have spoken to you.

"3. You will not be allowed to follow me or seek me out during the Grocery Games.

"4. You will not be allowed to attempt to exit Pick 'n Save unless you are the last survivor. Now, any questions on the rules?"

Nobody spoke after he'd finished, all afraid to after the disaster with the sarcastic kid. Jonah glanced to his right with just his eyes for an anxious look at the boy who still lay dead on the cold tiles of the floor. His stomach was turning at the thought of that kid being him instead.

"Alright then! Now I will explain how this will all go down. You will begin here at the starting area and you will not move until I make the announcement over the loudspeaker. Once I have signaled for you to move, it is all even ground then. The idea is to use whatever knowledge of aggressive survival you have and stay alive the longest using anything you find in the store—any of our products, really. In the center box," he stated, gesturing towards the giant cardboard box in the center of their circle, "you may find some, er, interesting items that are not available in the store because they have not been approved by the government to be customer-available. It may be to your advantage to grab something before it is taken by someone else."

He strolled past them all, making his way towards the door and grinning at all their shocked faces. As he was stepping out, he leaned back into the room and said,

"You all just wait until I make the announcement, okay? You will hear from me shortly, but I just would like to get out of the line of fire. Don't even think about trying to escape while I'm out; there are security cameras everywhere and I've been smart enough to install some _special_ equipment at all exits. Remember, any area in the store goes except for my office in the upper level."

The moment the two giant doors to the packaging room closed shut, all twenty-three of them starting talking feverishly with each other.

"I'm not killing anyone! I'm leaving as soon as this guy makes his little announcement!" shouted some tall, gothic sixteen-year-old.

"All the exits are rigged! How're we supposed to get out?!" a fifteen-year-old girl with a similar build but very bright clothing reminded him.

"We could sneak past, or something!" suggested a chubby fifteen-year-old boy with thick, dark green glasses.

The shouts went on for another minute and there was still no announcement. The wait was building up people's anxiety and Jonah knew that sooner or later everyone's instincts would take over and there'd be violence. Nobody would want to be killed off, EVER. He made it his immediate plan to rush out of there as soon as they were able to get moving and hide somewhere before somebody killed him!

As if on cue, he heard the attention-getting ring of the loudspeaker echo in the room. Everybody tensed, listening in fear and suspense.

"Hello again! I apologize for the delay, but I couldn't find the right key to my office upstairs. In just a moment we will be beginning the Grocery Games! On the count of three, you will all begin the fight to the death! Oh, what fun!"

Horrified beyond comprehension, they all coiled their muscles, some ready to spring towards the box of extra supplies, some ready to spring in the opposite direction and get the heck out of there before the bloodfest began.

"3! 2! 1! BEGIN!"

The adrenaline overtook everyone's bodies as many of them started fighting their way towards the box in the center. There were cries of pain and fury as punches were thrown as well as kneeing, clawing and even biting. Nobody could stop the flow of pure adrenaline through their bodies as their one and only goal was this: survive.

Jonah and maybe seven other people made a beeline for the door, their footsteps loud and heavy as they rocketed out into the open store. Trying to get through the door all at once, Jonah used his size to squeeze through and get a head start. He'd recovered since his previous sprint and so now he was kicking it into overdrive as he ran almost solely on willpower and determination. There was an imminent fear, too, but that was beside the point.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere he felt a searing pain on the back of his head. He cringed as he was running and held the back of his head. His hand got wet and warm, so he knew there was blood from something. Glancing quickly behind him, he saw a bloody meat cleaver lying on the ground. A Mexican fourteen-year-old with a string-bean body ran up to it and picked it up, then continued his pursuit of Jonah with a wild glint in his eyes.

Jonah's heart raced along with his brain and stomach as he rushed forward, zooming right around the long set of white meat coolers that made a line through the center of the meat section. He curved around one and entered one of the two toiletries aisle with all the toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, condition, shampoo AND conditioner and deodorant. The footsteps of this guy were hard slaps on the white-tiled floor while Jonah's were like baby steps in comparison.

He was beginning to run out of breath; the full sprint was taking its toll on him. He knew he had to do something. He might be strong for a teen his size, but how would that compare with the guy with too much limb for his own good? He could either lose the guy and hide or fight back. ...Yeah, he was just gonna keep running.

Jonah's adrenaline kept him going to keep him alive as the teenager behind him was getting closer really quickly, as his legs were much longer than Jonah's. Jonah exited the aisle and passed through one of the checkout lines in front of him, hoping to make it to somewhere safe. He spotted the two giant ice boxes that were near the Pick 'n Save exit doors and sped up, hoping to make it there and lock himself in with...something.

He was really rushing, so he had no time to formulate a good enough plan. His idea was to find shelter and hopefully not die. His heart gave a jolt as the meat cleaver flew just past his ear, cutting it but missing its original target area. The meat cleaver clattered on the ground in front of him and he snatched it up before hurrying up to the Plexiglass door and wrenching it open. He jumped up and squeezed himself inside of the tall ice box, slamming the door shut and sliding the meat cleaver in between the inside handle—why was there a handle on the inside?—and the edge of the ice box wall to jam it shut.

The person outside, now without his hard-won meat cleaver, tried to force the door open with all his strength. Still, with his skinny arms and legs it was mildly difficult to get the door open with the meat cleaver. He jerked it back ten times in frustration, but all he did was end up making the meat cleaver's handle bend a little bit around the handle on the inside, which made it near-impossible to get the door open then.

The guy outside gave up after five more seconds, leaving Jonah to try to calm his shaky breaths. The cloudy Plexiglass door was difficult to see through what with the icy fog inside and the door's transparency, but he did see the guy flip him off through the glass and then leave.

"D-darn it. I've already g-got an enemy." he muttered angrily, his teeth chattering.

He tried to see farther outside so he'd know if the coast was clear to find a better hiding spot, but as he was tugging on the meat cleaver he just couldn't get the handle to bend back. It was already getting cold, tough and difficult to touch without jerking his hand back from the chill. He shivered and let out a frosty breath, his panic immediately replacing his adrenaline. Now he was locked inside of a freezer and was probably going to freeze to death. He didn't want to die this way!

He thought of all the people he'd miss is he just went without any warning. His family and friends would be absolutely devastated. What about all his friends and fans on Fanfiction? And his girlfriend! He couldn't leave without saying goodbye to her, could he? All of these awful ideas were burning in his mind while the rest of his body froze, but it gave him the motivation he needed to grasp the cold metal like a man and pull. His muscles tensed as he jerked the handle as forcefully as possible. For a moment, he thought that the handle was beginning to bend back into its original straight form and he pulled harder!

He was almost there when he heard a bloodcurdling scream from right outside the door, maybe ten yards from where he was.

"Ewwww! Stop!" he heard a girl squeal.

Jonah grabbed the handle of the meat cleaver and jerked on it again, finally bending it straight enough where he could, with his shuddering hands, slide it out of the handle and stick it in one of the huge ice bags. He pushed lightly on the door and peeked out to see. Standing there, he saw a muscular dark-skinned macho man kind of sixteen-year-old smacking a fifteen-year-old girl with frizzy blonde hair with a whole northern pike.

She was met with a fish to the face about the third time before the guy stopped and started staring at her. He paused for a moment while she shuddered in fish slime, then bent down and grabbed her by her collar, lifting her back up and putting his face in front of hers.

"Keep quiet, b****, or we'll both die right here, right now. What's your name?"

She whimpered as her eyes landed on the disgusting fish in his hand.

"Maggie."

"Alright, Lil' M, we're gonna do this my way. You help me survive or I keep slapping you with this fish. Got it?"

She nodded her head quickly, still afraid of getting hit with the pike. He let her go and then muttered,

"The others will be coming soon. We gotta find a good hiding spot before we pick 'em off one by one. Come with me."

They both fled the scene and out of Jonah's view. When they ran off into the store somewhere he was finally able to breathe again. Pushing the door open a little bit farther, he looked left and right for anybody. Outside he could still hear shouting and the pounding of footsteps on tile, but there was nobody within sight of where he was. Jonah opened the door enough where he could slip out of the ice box, only this time he took the slightly-bent meat cleaver with him for protection.

To his right was the large walkway, with an ATM, lottery drawing machine and a change-maker against the back wall, that connected with the bathrooms and led towards the small area connected to the exit and entrance of the store—the area with all those available shopping carts. Past that the walkway connected to the open flower shop and, much farther off, the winery/brewery, which he thought had another exit that was probably blocked off anyway.

To his left was the shorter end of the wide path which led to a similar shopping cart section as well as a line of vending machines along the wall. Everything else in front of him was a gigantic line of checkout lines after checkout lines. Past the barrier-like checkout line area were all the different aisles. In the distance he could see some people running in different directions with food or tools as weapons, either fleeing or chasing.

While Jonah had the cover he needed, he immediately formed a plan in his mind and took action. He ran forward towards the first checkout line that was in front of him. Passing through it, he pulled open the minifridge that held all that soda by the checkout line. He pulled out all the soda, the metal holding racks and unplugged the machine, then hopped right inside and shut the door. It was a tight fit, but he managed. This would keep him hidden for a while as long as nobody decided they wanted a Coke.

* * *

**Well, gee! This story just got 100% darker, I suppose. How will Jonah fare against the rest of the contestants? How many of them have already been eliminated by the bloodbath? And HOW long will Nathan even last? If you enjoyed this chapter, be sure to stick around for more _Food Fight, _because these questions and more shall be answered in the future! I shall see you all later!**

**~Pastrinator64 [~]**


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